The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

?php
>

Friday, May 4, 2018

Israel Mounts Daring Operation Against Tehran - Ari Lieberman

by Ari Lieberman

Enforces its red lines in Syria.

On Sunday, in the late evening hours, a mysterious explosion rocked an army base belonging to Bashar Assad’s 47th
Brigade near the city of Hama. Other targets near Aleppo were also
reportedly hit. The blast at Hama was so powerful that it generated
massive seismic activity, registering 2.6 on the Richter magnitude scale
according to the European Mediterranean Seismological Center.

But this was no earthquake. It was a precision military strike aimed at
destroying a large cache of missiles recently airlifted by Tehran from
Mehrabad airbase to Hama’s military airport, through Iraqi airspace.
Iran effectively controls Baghdad making the task of illegally
transporting contraband through Iraqi airspace a rather simple affair.

According to reports, the strike hit pay dirt, igniting a stockpile of
some 200 rockets and missiles, including anti-aircraft missiles, and
generating a series of enormous secondary explosions. According to the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 40 pro-regime mercenaries
were killed in the blasts and some 60 were wounded. The SOHR noted that
the death toll could climb. The semi-official Iranian news agency INSA
reported that at least 18 Iranians
were killed including a commander, a claim swiftly denied by the
Islamic Republic, which for obvious reasons doesn’t like to advertise
its losses or show images of its elite troops coming home in body bags.
Satellite images of the site taken shortly after the blasts revealed
widespread destruction with at least 13 buildings either severely
damaged or leveled entirely.

Iran and Syria initially blamed
Israel for the attack but swiftly backtracked claiming that the attack
was carried out by the United States and Britain. Some conspiracy
theorists have even suggested that the Russians were responsible. These
claims are dubious at best and in all likelihood, the attack was
executed by the Israeli Air Force, a claim corroborated by three unnamed
U.S. officials according to NBC. The Iranian/Syrian vacillation concerning assignment of blame remains a mystery.

Israel, which has carried out over 100 strikes in Syria in recent
years, has no interest in being dragged into the Syrian quagmire but has
set its own red lines that if crossed, would trigger a robust military
response. Israeli leaders have repeatedly warned that they would not
tolerate the transfer of sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah, Iran’s
proxy militia that effectively controls Lebanon. More importantly,
Israel is concerned about Iranian entrenchment in Syria and the
possibility that Iran is seeking to open up another front against
Israel.

Israeli fears are not unwarranted and have been proven correct. In Mid-February, the Iranians sent an explosive-laden drone,
modeled after a captured American RQ-170, into the Jordan Valley. The
UAV, which was being tracked by the Israelis from the moment it was
launched, was promptly shot down by an Apache attack helicopter of the
113th Squadron. Israel then struck and destroyed the UAV’s control
vehicle but an F-16 was shot down in the process. Both pilots safely
ejected. Israel responded by destroying 1/3 to 1/2 of Syria’s surface-to-air missile batteries and further struck four Iranian bases.

In early April, Israel struck the T-4 airbase near the Syrian city
of Homes severely disrupting Iranian drone operations in Syria.
According to the SOHR, at least 14 people, including Syrian army
personnel were killed. Iran admitted to the loss of 7 Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps operatives including a colonel who was in charge of Iranian drone operations in Syria.

The heightened tensions come amidst the revelation of an astonishing
Israeli intelligence coup. Early this week, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu revealed
to the world that Israeli intelligence agents (probably belonging to
the Mossad) had seized a half-ton worth of documents and CDs containing
top secret information regarding Iran’s opaque weaponized nuclear
program that the Islamic Republic tried to conceal from the IAEA and the
international community. The documents were seized from a highly secure
facility in Tehran, which was only known to a few high-level Iranians,
“and a few Israelis,” as Netanyahu dryly noted with a satisfying grin.

The Mossad’s intelligence coup resulted in a second ancillary
achievement. It succeeded in sowing discord and suspicion within the
highest echelons of the mullah establishment. The news of the Israeli
action was greeted in Tehran with a wave of arrests.
The mullahs are pointing accusatory fingers at each other with no one
willing to accept responsibility for the embarrassing fiasco.

As part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran’s leaders were
required to come clean about their past nuclear activities but they
blatantly lied when they asserted that they had no weaponized nuclear
program, an assertion flatly contradicted by the seized documents. The
entire deal was thus premised on a lie. Moreover, the documents show
that Iran violated
clause T82.1 of the JCPOA which prohibits Iran from engaging in
“activities which could contribute to the development of a nuclear
explosive device.” Iran’s retention of this technology and its attempts
to conceal it from inspectors by transferring it to secretive locations
constitutes a serious breach of the agreement.

President Trump
has sought to modify the agreement by ending the JCPOA’s sunset clauses
on Iranian uranium enrichment, allowing unfettered inspections of sites
like the highly opaque Parchin facility, which is currently off limits
to inspectors, and curbing Iranian ICBM testing and development. Given
Iran’s penchant for lying (confirmed by the seizure of the documents)
and its increased aggressive stance and malign influence on five
continents, these demands are quite reasonable.

On May 12,
Trump is set to decide whether the United States will pull out of the
JCPOA. The daring Israeli operation has exposed Iran for what it is and
has undoubtedly tilted the balance heavily in favor of those who believe
that the Iran deal, standing as is, has harmed rather than helped the
cause of world peace.

Ari Lieberman is an attorney and former prosecutor who has authored numerous articles
and publications on matters concerning the Middle East and is
considered an authority on geo-political and military developments
affecting the region.Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270071/israel-mounts-daring-operation-against-tehran-ari-lieberman Follow Middle East and Terrorism on TwitterCopyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.